It’s a relatively unknown tale, documented more through its oral telling rather than any actual, you know, factual, um, historical recordings that can allow it proven based in anything resembling reality (but, still, like that unseen leukemia-stricken love of your life, it’s best if you just give in and go with it).

Anyhoo, as the story is told, some years back, James Brown, George Clinton and Prince were travelling through this neck of the woods for some reason (details are vague, but alcohol, threats and slapping were presumably involved), driving through the area in a Cadillac convertible (yes, Brown was riding shotgun) and eventually found themselves in the centre of our humble prairie oasis.

The trio, tired from their travels and in need of some sleep and nourishment, shucked their way into the first hotel and inquired of the innkeep as to the availability of a room to rest their weary heads, only to be met with a “No Vacancy” sign, the lobby filled with cowboy hats. It was the same as they shimmied their way from place to place, turned away at every entrance, shut down wherever they flamboyantly turned, each building filled with clientele ranging from those with mohawks to those with leather jackets to those with skinny jeans and others with flannel jackets.

Eventually they realized the truth of the situation, and headed back to their Caddie, wrapping Brown in his cape, strapping Prince in his infant seat, and all bundling back into the car.

And as they drove out of town, their tail lights fading in the night, the Godfather was heard to exclaim, with several “Ows” and “Good god, y’alls” added for good measure: “This is the town where funk and soul have no home.” (Note: the answer was much the same throughout the rest of the province, although in Lethbridge they were said to have found some evidence of “jive.”)

That, though, is something that Dale Barrie is hoping to change. Seven inches at a time.

Barrie and partner Jeff Papineau up in the equally funkless and soulless berg of Edmonton run the fledgling Kept Records, a boutique label that promises to peddle only the finest vinyl hunks of new and original funk, soul and Afrobeat on 45s and from around the globe.

“Funk and soul is just genuine stuff,” Barrie says, while sitting at a booth in District Urban Tavern. “It’s where it’s as at far as I’m concerned.

“It’s music that’s from the heart that speaks to the heart. And that’s what I want to bring people. I want to find those records that make me feel good and make me want to shake my hips and that’s what I want to put out, so people do that, too.

“And in the 45 format because it’s about the single, it’s about a cut. It’s not a concept on an album, it’s like, ‘OK, you’ve got four minutes, prove it. And if not, I’ll taking the needle off and because it’s the only track on here — there might be something on the flip — but it’s no good to me.’ The 45 has to prove something.”

Already the duo has proven they mean some mean business, having released a pair of records, the first from a Seattle act The Polyrhythmics, which has almost sold out its run of 500, and the second from spectacular Texas funk band Brownout.

And, this Monday, they’re set to drop the first of several 2013 releases, an unbelievably great front-and-back psychedelic instrumental attack from 18-year-old Turkish whiz Alpman, which, to borrow the quote from the Trading Places character known only as Even Bigger Black Guy (seriously, that’s how he’s credited), it is a “stone groove, my man.”

For Barrie, the label began as simply an idea that grew from a passion, having at first fallen in love with ’60s garage rock and then following its path to the world of funk and soul, all of which was best served in single form and from smaller labels. Starting up his own was his way of perhaps giving back a little bit to something that had given him so much pleasure.

“In my mind it legitimizes my hobby,” he says. “Being a huge music fan and record collector and somebody who obsesses a lot about music it was a way I could be a part of something that I believe in.”

He laughs. “And not having any genuine talent for making music with an instrument, it seemed like a natural fit.”

It also, oddly, is somewhat in keeping with both his and Papineau’s day job, which sees Barrie working as a law librarian employed by Alberta Justice, while his northern collaborator — who he calls his sounding board — is a special collections library technician at the U of A. Even the name Kept Records is in keeping with the theme, as is the motto, “Embalmed sounds for your listenin’ and dancin’ pleasure,” which gives a nod to Thomas Edison.

“I think it ties into this idea of . . . the preservation of putting things on the record and that our records are these cultural artifacts. Because they’re actual physical records they are a cultural artifact. They’re not an MP3. We’ll give you those for free if you want them, but the records are these cultural artifacts,” he says, noting that the songs are easily had from their Soundcloud site.

“You don’t own the music until you own this piece of music — it’s a physical, tangible thing. Your hard drive? That’s tangible. But the music is not, it’s just ones and zeros. That’s not what I want to do. If you want MP3s, I’ll give them to you, download them, I don’t care. But do you want to be one of 500 people on the planet who has a copy of my record? Well, you should want to be that person, because when they’re gone, they’re gone.

“And what are you going to do, bequeath your hard drive to your kids? Nah. Your record collection? Yes. My kids are going to have some pretty boss records when I’m done. . . . There are these artifacts and memories of what has happened and they’re preserved.”

Right now, much of the distribution is being done online, and through various distributors, with physical copies also being available locally from record stores The Inner Sleeve and Heritage Posters and Music. Selling for $5 a pop and crackle and hiss, Barrie admits he’s under no illusions that this road is “paved with gold,” explaining that recouping the costs from having them made at a plant down in the States and then the considerable expense of having them shipped back up here is all he hopes for, “Fingers crossed.”

It is, though, simply gratifying for him to be able to work with artists who he believes in and who, in turn, believe in what he’s trying to do, despite the fact that many of them probably couldn’t even place this city on a map.

Again, that might change, with the quality and calibre of releases being as impressive as they are, and the musicians being as respected as they are, including Brownout, which is an alter-ego of the Grammy-winning Grupo Fantasma, who won a Grammy, performed with GZA at high-profile events including Bonnaroo and have been, yes, Prince’s backing band.

“We’re working with those guys,” Barrie says with wonder. “It doesn’t mean that we should get automatic creditability, but we have these so many degrees of separation and this common thread of quality. As far as, should we get credibility? I think that we might one day, we might get it. I don’t know if we deserve it. But if people like it, it will come. . . . I just want to release good records.”

Some are already paying attention and obviously believing he is, including award-winning Belgium tastemaker DJ LeFtO and Los Angelino Jeremy Sole, who have both given Kept Records releases some nods of approval by way of spins on their shows.

As for Calgarians, well, that, Barrie admits has been a tougher sell. Sure, there are now those who make room for funk and soul on occasion, and, sure, even Prince, James Brown and some P-Funk have been welcomed by our town on several occasions. But still, most of the room made available locally — on radio, in clubs, in venues, on record labels — is still for the traditional styles of country, punk, garage rock, indie rock, etc.

Still, he’s not sweating it, happy to make his own home for funk and soul, even if it’s just a quick stop before it heads out to wherever it’s welcomed throughout the globe.

“I think if we got more of it in the city, people would get it,” he says. “But it’s nice to know that for people like myself, it doesn’t matter that we’re in Calgary, you don’t have to that stuff, you can do the funk and Afrobeat stuff and that people respond to it, too.”

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